Sunday, April 1, 2012CNA

BERLIN -- Taiwan ranked second place in a German think tank's evaluation of 128 developing and transitional countries in terms of their quality of democracy, market economy and political management, according to the 2012 Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index (BTI) released Friday.

On a scale of one to 10, with 10 points being the perfect score, Taiwan received 9.54 points, coming only behind the Czech Republic, which had 9.61 points, according to the index, which is published every two years.

Described as having a vital civil society, Taiwan was highly evaluated in the fields of democratic integration and market institutionalization, the BTI report indicated.

The report concluded that Taiwan is a country with a prosperous economy, stable politics, free and open elections, and freedom of the press and speech. It praised Taiwan's government for its administration efficiency, high crisis management capability, and respect of the law.

The transformation index measures successes and setbacks on a country's path toward a democracy based on the rule of law and a market economy anchored in principles of social justice.

In-depth country reports provide the qualitative data used to assess the countries' development status and challenges, and to evaluate the ability of policymakers to carry out consistent and targeted reforms, according to the report.

The Bertelsmann Stiftung is a private operating foundation that works as both a think tank and an organization devoted to the promotion of social change.

It introduces on its website the BTI as the first cross-national comparative index that uses self-collected data to measure the quality of governance and provide a comprehensive analysis of countries' policy-making success during processes of transition.